Who is this man?

"What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him?" (Matt. 8: 27)

At the beginning of Matthew 8 Jesus heals a man of leprosy. Then a Roman Centurion comes to Jesus in behalf of a servant at home who is paralyzed, and Jesus heals him without even going to the place where the man was bedridden. Shortly after that He heals Peter's mother-in-law who was sick with a fever, and then He delivered many from demons. Because a crowd was closing in on Him, He instructs the disciples to go over to the other side. As He is headed to the boat someone says, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replies, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Another individual says, "Lord, let me first go bury my father." and Jesus says, "Let the dead bury the dead." Then Jesus and His disciples get into a boat to cross to the other side. Jesus lays down and goes to sleep, and presently a storm comes up that is so severe it threatens to sink them. The disciples wake Jesus up and say, "Lord, save us, we are perishing." Jesus rebukes them for their smallness of faith, and then He rebukes the wind and the sea, and there was calm.

The disciples have now seen Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons, and rebuke the wind and the sea, and so they ask, "What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?" In this chapter we see that Jesus exercises authority over disease, over demons, and over the weather. The only variable in this scripture that Jesus allows a freedom of choice to are the people. Some would suggest there are many stories here and we could divide them up. The common thread, however, in my mind is the question, "Who is this man, Jesus?" The wind and the sea obey Him. The demons obey Him. Sickness and disease obeys Him. The only question, the only variable is will we obey Him? Will we trust Him with our lives without the security of a roof over our head, and with the awareness that following Him takes a priority over burying a family member. Does this man Jesus have the right to make unqualified claims on my life? Who we decide He is will determine our respone to Him, I believe. Since He is God, I believe our appropriate response is to follow Him without question or reservation, no matter the cost.

Normal Faith

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Rom. 10:17)

I heard someone define faith as simply taking God at His word and acting on it. Stop and think for just a moment. God is completely outside of time. He is the Everlasting God, the Beginning and the End, and all that the Bible says of Him. Time is simply an accomodation for us. The past and the future are pretty much the same to God. God can see all of time like you and I look at a picture or a photograph. That means from God's perspective, past history and future prophecy are pretty much the same. They are all reality. Whatever God says will be, is.

So it is not particularly extraordinary to exercise faith, although it may be uncommon. Normal faith is taking God at His Word and living on the basis of that. Trusting that God is going to do exactly as He says that He will do. In that sense, Simon Peter did not so much walk on the water, as He walked on the platform of the Word of Christ, who said, "Come".

I once heard someone say, "Faith is believing something to be so, when it isn't so, in order for it to be so." I disagree. We cannot will something to happen just because we believe it hard enough.
That statement needs a qualifier. "Faith is believing something to be so, when it isn't so, in order for it to be so, when God has said it is so."

Faith is cultivated by living in the Word of God and then choosing to believe what God has said. God always keeps His promises, and He is always right on time, everytime. Believing God is normal faith, not extraordinary. It may not be average or common, but it is the normal reality for a believer walking with God.